


Harry & Fern Potter, The Child Who Lived.

by illiterate (orphan_account)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Slightly Genderbent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-11
Updated: 2016-10-11
Packaged: 2018-08-21 23:08:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8263835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/illiterate
Summary: Harry and Fern Potter, just living their life. Following the books (kinda not really) in their perspective.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own anything you can recognise that belongs to JK Rowling. I own my own character, Fern and the plot, but that is it. Don't sue me please I'm but a child.  
> -  
> Okay hi, this is my second fic I'm posting, still not quite used to the the format, but ah, c'est la vie. While I'm mostly fluent at English, I learnt it alongside Chinese as a kid, so please bear with me if I suck at this.  
> On to the story then!

A boy with straight, fiery red hair coupled with hazel eyes opened to the girl’s shocking green ones paired with black messy shoulder length looking from above.

Then a scream from the boy. Muffled, of course, thanks to the girl's hand and timing.

As she scrambled back from the could’ve-been offending noise, she stuck out her tongue while handing him his glasses, “Geez Haz, you could've made me go deaf with your girly scream!”

"And wake the whole neighbourhood.” She added as an afterthought.

The boy who was laid down, shot up, head knocking against the slanting wall of the cupboard. Then of course, lying back down again because well, it hurt.

As the boy cursed, his sister rolled her eyes, “Seeing how long we’ve been living in this hole here, you’d figure that _someone_  would know not to sit up from your spot.

Copying his sisters tone and putting on the glasses, the boy mocked, “Seeing how long we’ve been living in this hell here, you’d figure that _someone_ would switch places and see how _they_ feel when another scares the daylights out of them."

Before the sister could come up with a retort, a loud rapping sound was heard on the door of their little cupboard under the stairs, then followed by a shrill voice.

“Get up! It’s Duddy’s birthday, and everything has to be perfect! I need both of you in the kitchen now!”

“I always wonder how you do that.” The boy stated towards his sister as he rummaged through their junk to find a pair of socks.

“Do what?” The sister asked, combing one hand through her short and messy jet black hair and using the other to assist her brother in his quest.

“How to get up mere moments before ‘Tuny calls.” He muttered, before gesturing at her to move over a bit.

“Well experience, of course. And gut-feeling. Mostly just gut-feeling.” She said as she moved to her brother’s side of the mattress that barely fit in the cupboard.

“That’s amazing, to be honest.” He grunted as he attempted, in his quest for socks, to lift one edge of the mattress- which then just sprung back in place on the floor and led to him crashing into the wall.

“Well, I wasn’t the one who could get us both on top of the roof of the school kitchens in 2 seconds flat when Duds was chasing us- no, you.” His sister teased, then frowned. “To be honest, you could’ve left me behind, as Duds wouldn’t dream of hurting me. Then I wouldn’t have gotten into trouble.”

He whispered into the darkness with dramatic lighting, “I apologise, I have abandonment issues from... help me…”

“What was that last part?” The girl smirked as she watched her brother’s antics.

“...from LOSING MY SOCKS SO HELP ME FIND THEM ALREADY.” The boy screamed the last part just as the door was rapped again, “C’mon you youngsters, we don’t have long till my baby wakes up!”

The girl laughed and threw a pair of ridiculously large and obviously worn out socks at her brother’s face, then escaped out of the cupboard, knowing full well that none of the Dursleys will take well to him taking it out on her. So therefore for now, she was safe.

There actually was a startling difference between the siblings’ dress style.

The female on one hand, was seen as the baby girl that the Dursleys never had, and therefore was showered with clothes and fashion items. Sadly, her entire wardrobe only consisted of dresses, sandals, stockings and frilly underclothing, probably on purpose, so her brother couldn’t have nice clothes.

The Freak on the other hand, was given mainly hand-me downs that Duds wore and no longer fit him.

It was actually quite surprising that no teachers or adults would notice the neglect her brother received.They probably just didn’t want to make a fuss.

After all, Vernon Dursley was not a man you’d want to get on your bad side. He was very well off financially and didn’t mind to play dirty.

While neither of them were starved, Harry certainly did the brunt of the situation, as the burnt, shrivelled, unwanted pieces were given to him at meals. And as Petunia was essentially a master chef, there basically fed the bare minimum to him at meals. Of course the girl would anger at this, but the boy urged her not to do anything rash, so she simply snuck him the best parts of her meal to him just before cleanup and he’d wolf it down.

Perhaps it was due to the lack of proper food or the detention time he spent in the cupboard whenever he did something freaky or took the fall for the girl that he was so skinny and small compared to his twin.

“Oh Fern, would you mind getting the eggs ready? Do try not to burn yourself.” Petunia said with a smile as the girl- Fern walked in; but her expression soon turned to one of distaste as she saw the filth that entered behind her niece, “Boy, Harry, do the bacon and don’t burn it or else."

Fern shot her brother a sympathetic smile, ever since they could remember, everyone preferred Fern over him. He didn’t mind, as she always stood up for him whenever she had the chance and was constantly there for and with him.

When they were babies, their earliest memories were the two of them sharing a room with Dudley in separate cots.

However, as they got older, and it was clear that Haz was more or less unwanted, he and his cot at age 4, were moved away down to the cupboard.

The first night not seeing nor hearing her brother, Fern cried and screamed and begged, so much that it broke their hearts to see the girl that they unwillingly got attached to do such things, and then let Harry back upstairs.

The three of them continued sharing a room (the extra room being Vernon’s home office at the time), Harry and Fern shared a set of bunkbeds, and Duds got a king-sized bed. All for himself. And sometimes Fern can go on it too, cause Duds considered Fern as his best friend.

The system was set up so that Duds wouldn’t beat up or hurt Harry, lest he wanted to feel the silent wrath of his cousin, Harry wouldn’t provoke Duds as to not to ignite the burning fury of his twin.

The adults didn’t really care, as long as neither Fern nor Dudley got hurt.

This worked pretty well until first grade.

That was when Duds had to learn to be cool and how to tell losers from the cool crowd. How to be a bully.

Piers was the first lackey that Dudley got.

At first, they tested out the water, who to bait, who to not.

However, there was an unspoken rule. Everyone. And I do mean _everyone_. Had. A crush. On Fern. (Apart from her relatives, cause that’d be ew)

Due to this mutual liking of this one person and the realisation that everyone liked her, nobody was allowed to go near her or be close with her in a friendship type of sense. Due to this, Fern was lonely and stuck with her brother.

Harry was also bullied and therefore alone, of course, but less and less as Fern stood up for him.Harry was trying to set the table on the present-clustered slab when

Dudley walked in with his mother. He was nearly a perfect replica of the way his father would’ve looked at his age, pudgy, pink, beady blue eyes, and smooth, thick blond hair.

“Morning Dad, Fern… Freak.” The boy muttered before going off to count his presents.

As Fern finished the eggs, she split them on the five plates- evenly, as she did that for Harry whenever she could.

“Thirty-six, two less than last year.” He said, looking up at his parents.

“Margie got you a present under the big one from your parents” Fern piped up, “And I’ve got something for you in my cupboard"

“Alright, then that’s the same as last year, but I’m older now, I need more gifts,” Sensing a tantrum coming on, the two started wolfing down their eggs and bacon.

Tuna obviously could tell that as well, and quickly went to avert the crisis, “And we’ll get you another two when we’re out today. Two more presents, alright, darling?”

Dudley scrunched up his face in thought, “Then I’ll have forty?”

“Yes, that’s right my smart little sweetums.” Aunt Petunia soothed.

“Atta boy, lil’ tyke wants his money’s worth, just like his old man!” Vernon chuckled as he ruffled his son’s hair.

As the telephone rang and Petunia went to answer it, the twins and Vernon watched the pig in a wig unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games that he promised he’d play with Fern, and a VCR. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when the Auntie walked back in, looking both worried and angry.

“Oh this is bad, Mrs. Figg broke her leg and can’t watch the two of them” She nodded in their direction.

Dudley nearly fainted in horror and had to sit down, resulting in a pained groan from the chair he toppled in. 

Harry and Fern however, were quite exited. While they treated her well enough, it’s not like they took her anywhere fun before. Every year on Dudley’s birthday, he, his parents and a friend would go somewhere cool like adventure parks, hamburger restaurants or the movies. Every year, they’d leave the two of them with Mrs. Figg, a mad cat lady with a cabbage-smelling house.

“Then what can we do with them?” Petunia asked, looking furiously at Harry like it was all his fault.

“We could phone Marge?” Vernon suggested.

“Vernon, she hates the boy.”

“What about your friend? Yvette?”

“ _Yvonne_ is on holiday in Majorca.” She snapped.

“You could just leave us here.” Harry said hopefully, maybe he and Fern could have turns on the TV and computer when they were gone.

Her face scrunched up like she tasted something bitter, “And come back to find you’ve burnt the house down?” with an emphasis on you, specially for Harry.

“I suppose we could take them, and leave them in the car after we’ve gotten lunch.” Aunt Petunia offered.

“The car’s new, he’s not sitting in it with food.”

Dudley began to whimper and whine, pretending to cry.

Aunt Petunia rushed forward, flinging her arms around him, “Don’t cry, Duddydums, Mummy won’t let him spoil your special day?”

"I don’t want…  him t-to… come!” Dudley yelled between his sobs, “Fern’s fine but.. he… always sp-spoils… everything!” He shot an evil grin to Harry when nobody was looking.

“But I can make sure he doesn’t do anything too rash, Duds-“ Fern was cut off by the doorbell ringing.

“Oh god, they’re here!” Petunia rushed to answer the door, and a moment later, Piers Polkiss walked in with his mother. He was the rat-faced one who held peoples’ arms behind their backs as Dudley hit them. Not in front of Fern though, never in front of Fern.

Half an hour later, Harry and Fern were squashed in the back with Dudley and Piers, on their first time to the zoo. Harry was squashed against the door, then followed by Fern who was talking to piers, then Dudley on the other edge who took up nearly half of the backseat.

Before they left, he took Harry aside and warned him about the funny business. If anything happened that was out of the ordinary, he’d regret it.

Despite Harry swearing he won’t, Dursley didn’t believe him. Nobody apart from Fern ever believed him.

The problem was that strange things happened around the twins that they couldn’t explain.

Some examples like when Harry told his uncle his hair was getting too long, after raging about him being an ungrateful brat, Vernon dragged the poor boy to the bathroom and shaved all of his hair off apart from his bangs, “to hide that matching scar that you and your sister have.”

Dudley of course snorted during dinner whenever he saw how ridiculous Harry looked, as he and his mates teased Harry whenever they could when Fern didn’t notice, due to the fact that they were the kings of the playground.

After growing his hair magically overnight, he was locked in the cupboard for four days, even though he couldn’t explain why it’d grown back that quickly. Well, he could, but that would mean revealing that he and his sister could do things.

Another time, when Petunia was trying to get Fern to try on an orange, hand knit sweater that she made for her, it’d shrunk so even her hand couldn’t go through the neck. Aunt Petunia waved it off as it shrinking in the wash, and therefore, Fern wasn’t found out.

On their ride to the zoo, Vernon found motorcycles as his topic for the day to complain about.

“Hoodlums, roaring along like maniacs.” he said as a said motorcycle sped past.

Absentmindedly Harry commented, “I had a dream about a motorcycle, but it was flying."As Vernon swerved and nearly crashed, he turned to yell, face beet red, at the poor boy.

“MOTORCYCLES DON’T FLY!"

If there was something the Dursleys hated, it was anything out of the ordinary.

“I know they don’t,” Harry defended as the other two boys snickered- before Fern jabbed Piers in the gut with her elbow- “it was just a dream.”

It was a sunny day and the zoo was crowded. The Dursleys bought ice-cream from the vendors, two large chocolate ones for Dudley and Piers, and two medium vanilla ones for the twins. It tasted pretty amazing, Fern thought, as she and Harry stared at a gorilla that looked like Dudley’s twin if Duds weren’t blond.

The twins stayed at a safe distance from Piers and Duds, just in case they would get bored and come up with something ridiculous like 'Harry Hunting'.

They had lunch in a restaurant, and when Duds threw a tantrum about his ice-cream amount, Harry and Fern got to split it.

They both should’ve known it was all too good to last. 

After they’d had their lunch, the group headed to the reptile house.

There were many lit windows, and behind the glass, many types of lizards and snakes were roaming around on the wood and stone provided. The two boys went at once to find the largest snakes, and soon found it. It could’ve wrapped three times around Vernon’s car and crushed it into a lamppost- but it didn’t look in the mood for that, as it was fast asleep.

Despite trying many times to get the brown coiled reptile to move, with Dudley screaming at it, Piers’ face making and Vernon rapping on the glass, it stayed in the same position it was in for perhaps, days. When the troublemakers groaned, lost interest, and left, the twins walked up to it.

“Sorry about them,” Fern commented at the snake.

“They’re idiots.” Harry ended.

At their voices, the snake opened it’s eyes and lifted itself till the three of them were at eye level. And it winked.

They stared. And stared. Then Harry winked back.

With a jerk of his tail toward Dudley, it seemed like he in some way talked to them, saying, “I get that all the time.”

“Poor you..” Fern whispered, forehead against the glass.

“That must be really annoying to have people do that.” Harry added.

The snake nodded vigorously.

“Where are you from?” Harry asked.

He pointed at the sign.

Boa Constrictor, Brazil.

“Was it nice there?”

“Harry, it says on the sign he was bred in the zoo.” Fern interjected. “So you’ve never known your parents?”

It shook it’s head.

“Neither have we-“Harry was interrupted by Dudley screaming that the snake was moving and pushing him aside.

One moment, Dudley and Piers were pressed up looking at the snake with wide eyes, the next, the glass wasn’t there and while Dudley fell in, Piers didn’t.

Also, a Boa Constrictor was on the loose.

As it slithered away, the snake winked at both twins, “Thankssss, amigos… Brazil, here I come!”

“But, the glass… Where’d the glass go?” The keeper of the reptile house kept repeating in shock.

After apologies and tea, the six of them went back to the car, where Vernon and Piers were way over-exaggerating their tales, to the point where it nearly bit of Dudley’s leg, and nearly squeezed Piers to death. This was when Piers said, “Harry was talking to it just moments before as well.”

After Piers left, Vernon was so mad that he hardly could tell Harry to go to his cupboard. 

He was laying in his room later, without his twin, as she bunked with Dudley when he had his detention time, wishing he had a watch. He was fine with food, as Fern slid him two slices of toast through the flap just before she went to bed.

The two of them have lived with the Dursleys for close to ten years, ever since their parents died in a car crash. They’ve known they were special for 8 years. They’ve known the Dursleys have known Harry was special for- forever probably. Harry always took the fall for Fern.

They only had one photo of their parents, one that Fern had found when Dudley, Vernon and Harry were out for a males only trip, and Petunia had gone to buy groceries.

Fern had went up to the attic to explore, and found Petunia’s box of old photos. Seeing a lady with red hair and a man with dark curly hair with a baby in both their arms, she knew she found it. Wishing super hard for a duplicate, she got one, as if by magic, and left the replica in the box and placed it back to where she found it.

Fern couldn’t remember anything about their parents, while Harry could remember a green light. Perhaps from the car crash.

They’d known they were magic as kids, of course. They messed around with it and competed each other in different ways, trying to reach their extents. With the random people smiling, waving and shaking their hands, they dreamed of a relative coming to take them away, or perhaps running away together. That never came to be. 


End file.
